Air, waste & remediation

PG&E is committed to reducing air emissions and waste from our facilities and operations, while also addressing impacts to the environment from our historic operations in accordance with today’s regulatory standards.

Our approach

Air emissions

PG&E operates three natural gas-fired power plants with best-in-class emissions levels. To comply with local air quality regulations, PG&E is focused on minimizing air emissions from these conventional sources of power generation.

Waste diversion at facilities and operations

PG&E strives to minimize the overall amount of waste we generate, while composting organic waste and recycling non-hazardous materials such as glass, paper, and certain metals. We also reuse furniture and other service center and office materials through our furniture asset re-use management warehouse.

We also manage a robust program to recycle metals and other miscellaneous materials from used conductors, transformers, meters, and other equipment.

Hazardous and other waste

As part of our ordinary course of business, certain activities generate hazardous wastes. PG&E handles all hazardous waste in accordance with federal and state regulations. Our approach includes providing training and guidance to coworkers to ensure waste is properly managed from the point of generation to recycling or disposal.

Applicable federal and state hazardous waste management statutes include the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act under federal requirements and Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations and the California Health and Safety Code. California laws and regulations are generally more stringent and encompass broader waste streams than federal requirements. 

Remediation of historical impacts

As part of PG&E’s commitment to safety and environmental responsibility, we work to address contamination resulting from Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s and its predecessor companies’ historical facilities dating as far back as the mid- to late-1800s. Our commitment includes being a good corporate neighbor by conducting our remediation projects safely and sustainably.

For more than three decades, we have partnered with regulatory agencies, cities, and communities to implement our sustainable remediation approaches. We continue to learn, adapt, and implement the best available science and cleanup technologies to minimize community impacts and lower greenhouse gas emissions. These activities, in turn, deliver health, safety, economic, and social benefits to the communities we serve.

Engaging our community stakeholders early and often is a vital component of our efforts. Locally, we communicate with city leaders, local businesses, community groups, and residents to promote awareness, solicit feedback, and identify issues of interest with our projects. We partner on local hiring, workforce training, and local school STEM initiatives. Often our remediation efforts facilitate additional community investment, such as brownfield redevelopment, infill development, and affordable housing. 

Measuring progress

Air emissions

The following figures reflect emissions from PG&E-owned generation sources.

1. Amounts may not sum due to rounding. Additionally, there were no reportable mercury air emissions from PG&E’s facilities during 2021 to 2023.
2. Collective emission rates for Humboldt Bay, Gateway, and Colusa Generating Stations.
3. Includes all PG&E-owned generation sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear, hydroelectric, and renewable energy.

Waste diversion at facilities and operations

In 2023, we generated about 42% more solid waste compared to the prior year, and we diverted 68% of that waste from disposal. The increase in waste generation was largely driven by more sites and total square footage, numerous construction projects underway across the portfolio, and coworkers returning to offices following a period of remote work.

Moving forward, we continue to seek innovative ways to improve our waste diversion practices.

1. The tonnage data reflects all of the non-hazardous municipal waste at 175 to 197 office facilities and service centers for the 12 months from October to September.

Other waste reduction efforts in 2023 included:

• Recycled 56.9 million pounds of scrap iron, aluminum, and copper from conductors, steel, meters, transformer oil, and miscellaneous material. We recycled 21 million pounds of transformers; 1.5 million pounds of recovered meters; 75,540 pounds of high-density polyethylene plastic, including pipes and hard hats; about 133,866 pounds of substation transformer oil; and 6.2 million pounds of miscellaneous materials such as glass and cardboard.
• Recycled 402 tons of e-waste, including consumer electronic devices, CPUs, monitors, servers, printers, and other equipment.
• Reused 397 tons of furniture and other service center and office materials through our furniture asset re-use management warehouse.

Hazardous and other waste

The following table provides statistics on PG&E’s waste generation. While PG&E works to reduce hazardous waste, certain projects such as infrastructure upgrades or remediation of historical contamination may increase the amount generated in a given year.

1. Refers to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
2. Refers to the Toxic Substances Control Act.
3. These figures include polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste < 50 ppm PCB.
4. Treatment includes dechlorination of PCB waste to reduce the PCB concentration. The dechlorinated oil is either incinerated or repurposed/sold (would not qualify as “recycled”). The remaining equipment is recycled. 
5. Universal waste is comprised of seven categories: electronic devices, batteries, electric lamps, equipment with mercury, cathode ray tubes (CRT), glass from CRTs, and non-empty aerosol cans.
6. Radioactively Cleared Waste includes items such as chairs, tables, filing cabinets and waste from non-contaminated areas that a contracted waste processing firm has surveyed and cleared for alternative disposal.

Remediation of historical impacts

We continued our progress to address over 40 Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) sites previously owned or operated by PG&E or its predecessor companies. To date, over 30 of these sites have been successfully remediated and the remaining are in progress or mobilizing by 2025.

• We worked closely with the site developer at the former Potrero MGP and power plant site to establish an expedited approach to simultaneously address our historical impacts and accelerate site redevelopment. The PG&E cleanup was completed in 2023. The site will become a mixed-use development with several thousand housing units and nearly eight acres of open space and will provide public access to a portion of the San Francisco waterfront for the first time in nearly 150 years.
• We completed remediation efforts at the former Vallejo MGP. We continue to coordinate with the City of Vallejo on final restoration work. The site has long been designated as a critical development opportunity to activate Vallejo’s waterfront and stimulate reinvestment in this economic, community gathering, and transportation hub.
• We began remediation work at the former Napa MGP in 2023. Work includes excavating contaminated soil, transporting the soil off-site to permitted landfill facilities for disposal, and on-site treatment of deeper soils in place, followed by backfilling with clean imported soil. Cleanup work will allow for eventual site development.

At the Topock Compressor Station, we are implementing a California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)- and U.S. Department of the Interior-approved in-situ groundwater remedy designed to protect the neighboring Colorado River from historical impacts using naturally occurring microorganisms.

At the Hinkley Compressor Station, in-situ and agricultural remediation have removed 89% of the chromium present in the groundwater through 2023.

• We treat chromium in two ways at this site: using in-situ treatment to immobilize the chromium underground and pumping the water and using it for farming; the organic soils transform the chromium into an immobile form.
• A 2023 U.S. Geological Survey study supported reducing the eight- by two-mile plume by 60% and only five of the 40 groundwater wells remain to be treated to meet a 2025 goal.
• We have partnered with local farmers to adjust irrigation pumping patterns in the area, to not only address our chromium objectives in a sustainable way by growing crops, but also to help with area-wide legacy nitrate pollution from historical farming and ranching activities in the valley. Our chromium treatment has simultaneously removed 359 tons of nitrate from the local aquifer.

By incorporating sustainable practices at our remediation sites, we reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 400 metric tons and liquid wastes by more than half a million gallons in 2023. We achieved these results by:

• Using heavy construction and remediation equipment meeting Tier 3 and Tier 4 federal emission standards, reflecting the cleanest standards in the industry.
• Using alternative fuels and renewable sources of energy for equipment and vehicles.
• Maximizing recycling, on-site reuse of materials, and reductions in liquid and soil wastes generated during remediation.

In addition, we recycled 36,000 tons of offsite waste and added $17 million to the local economies near our project sites by sourcing our equipment and vendors from the community.